# Counting seconds in other countries. **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 27, 2006, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/counting-seconds-in-other-countries/366293 "2006-07-27T17:20:47Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![antechinus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/fbc32d/32.png) [@antechinus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/antechinus)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2006, 3:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/counting-seconds-in-other-countries/366293/21 "2006-07-28T03:27:07Z")
one Woolloomooloo, two Woolloomooloo, … kidding one electronic, two electronic, etc ---
**Author:** ![Bambi\_Hassenpfeffer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Bambi\_Hassenpfeffer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bambi_Hassenpfeffer)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2006, 3:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/counting-seconds-in-other-countries/366293/22 "2006-07-28T03:51:08Z")
[QUOTE=neutron star] Once, as a kid, I timed myself saying “Mississippi” and realized that it actually took slightly over a second. Stickler for accuracy that I was, I dropped the middle “iss” from the word, bringing it down to three syllables. That worked out to exactly a second, and I still do it that way to this day. [/QUOTE] That’s OK. That’s how the Mississippians say it too. ---
**Author:** ![Ale](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/f19dbf/32.png) [@Ale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ale)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2006, 4:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/counting-seconds-in-other-countries/366293/23 "2006-07-28T04:03:49Z")
“Mil-ciento-uno, mil-ciento-dos, mil-ciento-tres” and so forth; however it´s not usual; most people here just count from 1 and times it by an educated guess. I´ve only used the timing trick a few times when I wanted to get the timing for an animation and I didn´t have a timer at hand. My usual method is simple, I just imagine the tickling of a clock, Tic----Toc----Tic----Toc----… In general I have a good perception of time flow, for example I´d set up the microwave to heat something, go away to do something and return just in time to open the door. ---
**Author:** ![capybara](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/capybara/32/202_2.png) [@capybara](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/capybara)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2006, 4:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/counting-seconds-in-other-countries/366293/24 "2006-07-28T04:03:52Z")
This is interesting. Antechinus, and you Canadians, are you serious? And Picadilly in England? That’s very cool. Steamboats and electronics. Interesting about zweiundzwanzig, too. I like this thread. ---
**Author:** ![Raguleader](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/258eb7/32.png) [@Raguleader](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Raguleader)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2006, 5:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/counting-seconds-in-other-countries/366293/25 "2006-07-28T05:08:08Z")
When I was a Ragu-Follower, we were taught to count either Mississippis or Locomotives, depending on personal preference. This was in the Department of Defense school district at Yokota Air Base, Japan, IIRC. (Yokota East Elementary School, I think). ---
**Author:** ![Cunctator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/43a26b/32.png) [@Cunctator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cunctator)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2006, 7:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/counting-seconds-in-other-countries/366293/26 "2006-07-28T07:00:36Z")
Here my grandmother’s favourite was _one white elephant, two white elephants_… ---
**Author:** ![abby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/48db29/32.png) [@abby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/abby)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2006, 7:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/counting-seconds-in-other-countries/366293/27 "2006-07-28T07:48:30Z")
[QUOTE=Cunctator] Here my grandmother’s favourite was _one white elephant, two white elephants_… [/QUOTE] How fascinating. When I was growing up, it was “one-cat-and-dog, two-cat-and-dog”. ---
**Author:** ![Tibby](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tibby/32/17030_2.png) [@Tibby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tibby)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2006, 8:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/counting-seconds-in-other-countries/366293/28 "2006-07-28T08:07:43Z")
Wales must have had some sort of influence on my hometown in New Jersey because growing up we youngsters would say, “1-Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch 2-Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch 3-Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch…” I remember my childhood fondly, though, ironically, we were perpetually late for everything. ---
**Author:** ![Cardinal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cardinal/32/4000_2.png) [@Cardinal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cardinal)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2006, 8:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/counting-seconds-in-other-countries/366293/29 "2006-07-28T08:14:19Z")
[QUOTE=neutron star] Growing up in Pennsylvania, everyone I knew counted with “Mississippi.” The most frequent place you’d hear it would be during playground football games, where the defensive players would have to count to five Mississippi before they could rush the quarterback. [/QUOTE] I was going to post exactly that. I got really good at “one Mississippi” for Nerf football games in backyards and courtyards. I suspect I was under one second, what with the slurring. ---
**Author:** ![mittu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ecd19e/32.png) [@mittu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mittu)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2006, 8:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/counting-seconds-in-other-countries/366293/30 "2006-07-28T08:15:31Z")
I use either ‘white elephant’ or ‘Mississippi’. I am from the U.K. and have never heard of ‘Picadilly’ being used but I am from the north of England so perhaps it is a regional thing. These methods for counting always seem flawed to me as when you get to larger numbers speaking the numbers in your head takes longer so your separating word should become shorter to compensate. By way of a quick experiment I just timed myself counting ‘zero Mississippi one Mississippi two Mississippi…’ up to ten and it took about 9 seconds each time. I then timed myself counting ‘twenty Mississippi twenty-one Mississippi twenty-two Mississippi…’ up to thirty and it took around 11 seconds each time. So it seems to me that Mississippi gives a happy medium but a more accurate system would have different stalling words that are introduced as you reach higher numbers, using a single word of phrase throughout is going to give you pretty big errors when you get up into the hundreds and thousands. ---
**Author:** ![Monty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/monty/32/47_2.png) [@Monty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monty)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2006, 8:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/counting-seconds-in-other-countries/366293/31 "2006-07-28T08:40:18Z")
I’ve never heard before now of anyone counting “Zero Mississippi.” ---
**Author:** ![mittu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ecd19e/32.png) [@mittu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mittu)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2006, 8:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/counting-seconds-in-other-countries/366293/32 "2006-07-28T08:50:30Z")
Well it makes sense to me to start at zero, if you were to begin counting and you started at one you would always be a second ahead, for example if you start a stopwatch and immediately start counting ‘one Mississippi two Mississippi…’ then at the point you say two the clock will say one, at the point you say three the clock will say two and so on. Doesn’t that make more sense or am I missing something fundamental in counting I haven’t realised before? ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2006, 8:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/counting-seconds-in-other-countries/366293/33 "2006-07-28T08:52:04Z")
In Spain we either count figures or use a watch. You know, those machines that were invented for counting time? Those. ---
**Author:** ![glee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b5a626/32.png) [@glee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/glee)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2006, 8:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/counting-seconds-in-other-countries/366293/34 "2006-07-28T08:59:56Z")
I use ‘ABC one’, ‘ABC two’ and so on. It doesn’t work so well when the numbers have more syllables! Oh, and it’s two c’s in Piccadilly. ---
**Author:** ![Malacandra](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/45deac/32.png) [@Malacandra](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malacandra)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2006, 9:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/counting-seconds-in-other-countries/366293/35 "2006-07-28T09:14:11Z")
In Soviet Russia, seconds count _you_! 😃 Mostly it was “one thousand and one, one thousand and two, one thousand and three…” etc, although I have a soft spot for “one little monkey, two little monkeys, three little monkeys…” ---
**Author:** ![flodnak](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/838e76/32.png) [@flodnak](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/flodnak)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2006, 9:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/counting-seconds-in-other-countries/366293/36 "2006-07-28T09:55:16Z")
In Norway it’s usually “ett tusen og en, ett tusen og to, ett tusen og tre…”, which is to say one thousand one, one thousand two, one thousand three… in fact there was a public safety capaign something between 12 and 15 years ago to try to get drivers to leave enough empty space between their car and the car ahead, which inclosed distributing bumper stickers that read **1001, 1002, 1003** - i.e., count three seconds to check the spacing. ---
**Author:** ![mittu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ecd19e/32.png) [@mittu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mittu)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2006, 10:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/counting-seconds-in-other-countries/366293/37 "2006-07-28T10:00:49Z")
In the U.K. we are taught to use the phrase “only a fool breaks the two second rule” to judge how close we should be to the car infront, the phrase is supposed to take two seconds to say. ---
**Author:** ![JCorre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/3da27b/32.png) [@JCorre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JCorre)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2006, 4:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/counting-seconds-in-other-countries/366293/38 "2006-07-28T16:21:21Z")
[QUOTE=Cardinal] I was going to post exactly that. I got really good at “one Mississippi” for Nerf football games in backyards and courtyards. I suspect I was under one second, what with the slurring. [/QUOTE] When we played football in the street we had to count five “Alligators” before we could rush the quarterback. Alligators were only used in football though. All other timing conventions used the, apparently, popular “one onethousand, two onethousand”. Grew up in the East Bay section of the SF Bay Area. ---
**Author:** ![Zeldar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b77776/32.png) [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2006, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/counting-seconds-in-other-countries/366293/39 "2006-07-28T16:31:35Z")
[QUOTE=BwanaBob] We used “one one-thousand; two-one-thousand; three-one-thousand”… [/QUOTE] Same here. Alabama and Tennessee. I was adult (maybe it was in _Raising Arizona_) before hearing about the Mississippi thing, which, when I think of it, is quite odd. ---
**Author:** ![Quercus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/7ab992/32.png) [@Quercus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quercus)\ **Post date:** [July 28, 2006, 5:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/counting-seconds-in-other-countries/366293/40 "2006-07-28T17:16:01Z")
[QUOTE=mittu] Well it makes sense to me to start at zero, if you were to begin counting and you started at one you would always be a second ahead, for example if you start a stopwatch and immediately start counting ‘one Mississippi two Mississippi…’ then at the point you say two the clock will say one, at the point you say three the clock will say two and so on. Doesn’t that make more sense or am I missing something fundamental in counting I haven’t realised before? [/QUOTE] Depends. Do you figure you reach ten seconds at the first ‘t’ sound of ‘ten’ or only after completely finishing ‘ten Mississippi’? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/counting-seconds-in-other-countries/366293.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/counting-seconds-in-other-countries/366293.md?page=3)